Stop calling the Jack Teixeira case a #counterintelligence failure. It is a #security failure and #media circus. If reports are correct, Jack Teixeira broke multiple security rules, took a phone camera into a SCIF, printed out classified documents unnecessarily, took photos of them, removed them from the SCIF, and posted them to an obscure Internet site. Some are calling that a CI failure. It is not. It is a security failure—CI and security are not the same, although most people incorrectly conflate them. Teixeira broke the law and will likely be punished. But the real failure is what has followed. At least as egregious as Teixeira’s actions is the media’s feeding frenzy around classified documents. The media is an accomplice to Teixeira’s crime. The media believes it has an inalienable right to publish classified information, even if it has no understanding of the context or purpose for the documents. Some have begun to demand changes: the #intelligencecommunity should monitor obscure chat rooms more often; there are too many people with access to classified information; the Intelligence Community should reject the “responsibility to share” concept. These are all unnecessary. This event was caused by an egotistical kid who ignored security rules, not by failures of the Intelligence Community. Headlines like these are the bigger problem: --Newsweek: “Read the Leaked Secret Documents on Ukraine and Vladimir Putin” --The Guardian: “China Agreed to Secretly Arm Russia, Leaked Pentagon Documents Reveal” --Wall Street Journal: “Intelligence Leaks Highlight U.S.-Russia Rivalry in the Middle East” --AP News: “US Intelligence Leak Complicates Summit with South Korea” --New York Times: “New Leaked Documents Show Broad Infighting Among Russian Officials” Those headlines will lead to CI failures. Thus, the real needed changes involve the media. The media should be held accountable for irresponsibly blasting classified information. But that will never happen—the media is sacrosanct, no matter how reckless it is. Another thing that this event demonstrates is the essential nature of intelligence #objectivity. The media’s politicized response should show all intelligence personnel how important it is to keep politics out of intelligence. The media is incapable of doing that; the Intelligence Community usually does it well, with a few exceptions that the media hypocritically amplifies.